Kato/Tamura/Miyasaka/Soothill translation of Innumerable Meanings/Lotus/Meditation of Universal Virtue sutras

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narhwal90
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Kato/Tamura/Miyasaka/Soothill translation of Innumerable Meanings/Lotus/Meditation of Universal Virtue sutras

Post by narhwal90 »

I was turning over my boxes of books last night, getting things sorted for some changes in study patterns and found a copy of the "Threefold Lotus Sutra" translation by Kato/Tamura/Miyasaka/Soothill of the Innumerable Meanings, Lotus Flower, Meditation on Bodhaisattva Universal Virtue sutras. It was published under the auspices of the Rissho Kosei-kai- so a Japanese cross-lineage Nichiren oriented operation. My copy is the 10th edition circa 1988 and was first published in 1975.

I was wondering if anyone has experience with it- I had bought it in a used bookstore ages ago but hadn't read it before it was caught up in an eddy of reorganizing and stuck in the basement for quite a while.
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Queequeg
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Re: Kato/Tamura/Miyasaka/Soothill translation of Innumerable Meanings/Lotus/Meditation of Universal Virtue sutras

Post by Queequeg »

Not a go-to for me, and not for any particular reason other than I had other translations first that were adequate for my purposes. Occasionally, I will consult it to see how certain passages were translated for comparison sake.

My sense is that the translation is influenced by Lotus school commentary and so can be useful within this world.

Kosei recently published a revised version that reads better.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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